I don't suppose he took the easy way out in the tournament competition in part III

Unless it's a MMA tournament, which it doesn't appear to be so, there are other events besides fighting or sparring to compete in. There's also board breaking and forms; and since that one dude who lied about his colleague passing away in the movie was working on getting him to break boards, I wonder why he didn't just see about competing in board breaking so he'd be making good on what he said he signed up for and had cops show up so they'd be ready to arrest him for causing trouble. Personally, I disagree with that technique for board breaking that he was trying for that dude who was setting him up. The best chance of breaking a board with a hand technique would be the palm heel thrust, and I prefer the downhill one because there's a good chance of breaking through at least two or three if he does. I've never heard of trying to break boards by punching them in a school like that.
Take care and God bless